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100 200 300 400 500 miles EGYPT outv Ascheri Alexandria Cairo gove THE into SPREAD OF Through much of history, women served nepł their fathers as they grew up, were sold to sum SEPHARD their husbands for payment, and served long JEWRY their husbands for the rest of their lives. Jewi S Jewish women were generally treated with greater kindness and respect. The Talmud taught that women were not as mon socially important asmen , but it also taught that women had safe full rights . Contracts of marriage , always favoring thewoman , Otto protected these rights . And the Jewish woman 's role of place educating children was considered holy and sacred . From allov A time to time, women rose to leadership in Jewish com munities ; some, like Rashi's daughters, became great Here scholars . Mari In the sixteenth century, one Jewish woman became so live i important through her good works that she was called simply her i La Senora, " The Lady. " Her full name was Dona Gracia Mendes Nasi and she lived from about 1510 to 1569. anos 6th and 17th Centure

The Spread of Sephardi Jewry / 63

La Senora Both DNIEPER before and after the R edict of expulsion in 1492 , Jews left Spain to escape the Inquisition and its horrors. At first , the safest nearby country was Portugal; and it was to Portugal that the family ofGracia Nasi fled . Gracia was her Jewish name, but outside the house, where she pretended to be Christian , she was called Beatrice de Luna. Even in her teens, Black Sea Beatrice was beautiful, and by the time she was eighteen , she married . Her husband was Fran cisco Mendes, a Marrano diamond merchant and tantinople banker. Nine years later, Francisco died , leaving Beatrice a wealthy young woman .

EMPIRE The Angel of the Marranos Before, people had seen only her beauty , but now her wisdom shone . PALESTINE When the Inquisition came to Portugal, Beatrice moved her family to the Netherlands, to the city of Antwerp , and she began to use her fortune to help other Marranos escape Por tugal. In 1545 , she left Flanders and moved to Venice, Italy . All this time she had remained a Marrano, still pretending outwardly to be Beatrice , Gracia Mendes Nasi, the Christian . But in Venice , the " Angel of the government discovered that she Mar was Jewish . They threw her ranos." into prison , and there she waited for two years while her erved nephew Joseph Nasi tried to ransom her. Finally , a ransom ld to sum was agreed upon , and she was set free . There was no arved longer any reason to pretend, so Beatrice began using her lives . Jewish name: Gracia Mendes Nasi. iness She and Joseph moved to Ferrara, Italy ; and again she sent ot as money to help Portuguese Jews. But even Ferrara seemed un n had safe to her, and she looked elsewhere . To the east lay the man , Ottoman Empire of the Muslim Turks. Surely this was a le of place the Inquisition could not enter. But would the Turks From allow the Jews to enter ? com As a test, Dona Gracia herself moved to Constantinople. great Here she found peace . She continued to send money to the Marranos of Portugal and to those in Italy , bringing many to ne so live among the Turks. In her lifetime she helped so many of mply her people that they gave her the title, " Angel of the Mar racia 64 / The Spread of Sephardi Jewry

ranos." So many Marranos came to settle in the Turkish em pire east that a Jewish language was spoken there , a mixture of Spanish and Hebrew called Ladino .

Joseph Nasi Dona Gracia 's nephew , Joseph , became a loyal advisor to the sultan . In return , the sultan made him duke of the island of Naxos, and allowed him to rule many other places, including the city of Tiberias in the Holy Land . Joseph fell in love with Tiberias and or dered it rebuilt. He brought mulberry trees and silkworms from the Far East to start a silk industry there . Then he sent ВАЕ an invitation to the Jews of Italy. Legend tells that one ship load of Italian Jews arrived in the Holy Land only to be cap Ban 163 tured by pirates and sold into slavery. Few others dared to come. For Joseph it was a great disappointment. Yethis years Inqi phil at the court of the sultan were good years for the Jews of the Ottoman Empire . phil writ teac The Reformation and the Jews of Hol land wor Not all Sephardi Jews headed to Turkey . Just as Gracia Am Nasi had done at first, many went to the Low Coun tries, especially Holland. It was the time of the Reformation in Europe, when the Catholic church split in two . The new Весі wer movement was called Protestant because it '' protested" the Catholic way of life . The people of Holland, the Dutch , were Spir among fina the new Protestants. They revolted against Catholic exco Spain ; and in 1579 became an independent country . the Among the Dutch , the Jews found new freedoms. By 1598 , pun the Jews of Amsterdam were allowed to build a synagogue pers and to practice Judaism openly. From Holland, the Jews spread westward, too. A Dutch Jew , Manasseh ben Israel, Rea traveled to England to meet the Protestant leader, Oliver Spir Cromwell. The Jews had been expelled from England in 1290 , but Manasseh convinced Cromwell to allow them to return . Tol owr Thus the Jews of Spain scattered to new parts of the world and returned to places where Jews had not been seen for the many generations. the